Tamil (தமிழ்)

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken mainly in southern India and Sri Lanka, and also in Malaysia, the UK, South Africa, Canada, the USA, Singapore, France, Mauritius, and many other countries.

According to the 2001 Indian census, there were 60.8 million speakers of Tamil in India. [source]. According to 2012 censuses, there were just over 3 million Tamils in Sri Lanka, and 1.8 million Tamils in Malaysia. There are also Tamil populations of more than 100,000 in the UK, South Africa, Canada, the USA, Singapore, France and Réunion [source]. The total number of Tamil speakers is about 67.5 million.

Tamil at a glance

Native name: தமிழ் (tamiḻ) [ˈt̪amɨɻ]
Language family: Dravidian, Southern
Number of speakers: c. 67.5 million
Spoken in: India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UK, South Africa, Canada, USA, Singapore, France, Mauritius
First written: 500 BC
Writing system: Tamil script
Status: official language in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Recognised minority language in Malaysia, Mauritius and South Africa

In India Tamil is spoken mainly in the state of Tamil Nadu, and the Indian Union Territory of Puducherry. There are also significant numbers of Tamil speakers in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands..

Tamil is used as a language of education in Malaysia and Singapore.

Written Tamil

The earliest known inscriptions in Tamil date back to about 500 BC. Tamil literature started to apper in 300 BC, and the language used until the 700 AD is known as Old Tamil. From 700-1600 AD the language is known as Middle Tamil, and since 1600 the language has been known as Modern Tamil.

Tamil was originally written with a version of the Brahmi script known as Tamil Brahmi. By the 5th century AD this script had become more rounded and developed into the Vaṭṭeḻuttu script. In the 6th century during the Pallava dynasty (275-897 AD), a new script for Tamil, known as the Chola-Pallava script, was devised. It also used some letters from Vaṭṭeḻuttu in Sanskrit loanwords. By the 8th century, the Chola-Pallava script was used instead of Vaṭṭeḻuttu in the northern part of the Tamil-speaking area, although Vaṭṭeḻuttu continued to be used in the south until the 11th century. During the next few centuries the modern Tamil script evolved from the Chola-Pallava script.

During the 19th century the Tamil script was simplified to make it easier to typeset. Further simplifications in the 20th century included the regularisation of vowel markers.

The Tamil alphabet is well suited to writing literary Tamil, centamiḻ (செந்தமிழ்). However it is ill-suited to writing colloquial Tamil, koṭuntamiḻ (கொடுந்தமிழ்). During the 19th century, attempts were made to create a written version of the colloquial spoken language. Nowadays the colloquial written language appears mainly in school books and in passages of dialogue in fiction.

Tamil is also written with a version of the Arabic script known as Arwi by Tamil-speaking muslims.

Notable features

Type of writing system: Abugida / Syllabic Alphabet
Writing direction: left to right in horizontal lines
Script family: Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Brāhmī, Tamil-Brahmi, Pallava, Tamil
When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters.
Some of the non-standard consonant-vowel combinations are not used in official documents.
The alphabet was originally written on palm leaves. As a result, the letters are made up mainly of curved strokes which did not rip the leaves.

Tamil alphabet

Non-standard consonant-vowel combinations

Notes

The Grantha letters are used to write consonants borrowed from Sanskrit, and also some words of English origin. They are not considered part of the standard Tamil alphabet.
ச is pronounced [s] medially
[s] and [ɕ] are allophones of initial /t͡ɕ/ in some dialects.
The sounds /f/, /z/ and /ʂ/ are found only in loanwords and frequently replaced by native sounds
[ɦ] and [x] are allophones of /k/ in some dialects

Some consonants have different pronunciations depending on their position in a word, or the letters next to them.

க் is pronounced [k] in initial position, [x~ɡ] in medial position, [kː] when geminate (doubled) and [ɡ] after a nasal
ச் is pronounced [t͡ɕ] in initial position, [s] in medial position, [tːɕ] when geminate, and [dʑ] after a nasal
ட் is pronounced [ʈ] in initial position, [ɖ~ɽ] in medial position, [ʈː] when geminate and [ɖ] after a nasal
ற்ற is pronounced [r] in medial position, [tːr] when geminate and [(d)r] after a nasal
த் is pronounced [t̪] in initial position, [d̪~ð] in medial position, [t̪ː] when geminate and [d̪] after a nasal
ப் is pronounced [p] in initial position, [b~β] in medial position, [pː] when geminate and [b] after a nasal

Numerals

Tamil numerals

The numerals rarely appear in modern Tamil texts. Instead, 'Arabic' numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.) are used.

Other symbols

Other Tamil symbols

Download script charts for Tamil (Excel)

Sample text in Tamil

மனிதப் பிறவியினர் சகலரும் சுதந்திரமாகவே பிறக்கின்றனர்; அவர்கள் மதிப்பிலும் உரிமைகளிலும் சமமானவர்கள். அவர்கள் நியாயத்தையும் மனசாட்சியையும் இயற்பண்பாகப் பெற்றவர்கள். அவர்கள் ஒருவருடனொருவர் சகோதர உணர்வுப் பாங்கில் நடந்துகொள்ளல் வேண்டும்.

Transliteration

Maṉitap piṛaviyiṉar čakalarum čutantiramākavē piṛakkiṉṛaṉar; avarkaḷ matippilum urimaikaḷilum čamamāṉavarkaḷ. Avarkaḷ niyāyattaiyum maṉačāṭčiyaiyum iyaṛpaṇpākap peṛṛavarkaḷ. Avarkaḷ oruvaruṭaṉoruvar čakōtara uṇarvup pāṅkil naṭantukoḷḷal vēṇṭum.

Hear recording of this text by Muralikrishnan Ramasamy

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample video in Tamil

Links

Information about Tamil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_phonology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_literature
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_people
https://sites.google.com/site/sarvabhashin/en/ta
https://www.howtolearnalanguage.info/languages/tamil/alphabet

Online Tamil lessons
https://www.learntamil.com/
http://polymath.org/tamil.php
http://ilanguages.org/tamil.php
https://mylanguages.org/learn_tamil.php
http://ilovelanguages.org/tamil.php

Online Tamil dictionaries
https://agarathi.com/
http://www.dictionary.tamilcube.com
http://www.tamildict.com
https://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tamil/
https://www.shabdkosh.com/dictionary/english-tamil
https://www.shabdkosh.com/dictionary/english-tamil
https://www.lexilogos.com/english/tamil_dictionary.htm

Free Tamil fonts
http://www.azhagi.com/freefonts.html
http://www.wazu.jp/gallery/Fonts_Tamil.html

Online Tamil radio
http://www.slbc.lk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tamil/
http://www.ctbc.com

Tamil names
http://tamilcube.com/babynames/tamil-baby-names.aspx
http://babynames.tamilstar.com/

Tamil songs
http://tamilsongslyrics.in
https://samadada.com/tamil-folk/

Dravidian languages

Badaga, Brahui, Dhundari, Gondi, Irula, Jatapu, Kannada, Kodava, Kolam, Konda, Koya, Kurukh, Malayalam, Malto, Mukha Dora, Ravula, Sankethi, Savara, Sunuwar, Suriyani Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Toda, Tulu, Yerukula

Languages written with the Tamil alphabet

Irula, Tamil, Toda

Abugidas / Syllabic alphabets

Ahom, Aima, Arleng, Badagu, Badlit, Basahan, Balinese, Balti-A, Balti-B, Batak, Baybayin, Bengali, Bhaiksuki, Bhujimol, Bilang-bilang, Bima, Blackfoot, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Carrier, Chakma, Cham, Cree, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dham Lipi, Dhankari / Sirmauri, Ditema, Dives Akuru, Dogra, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Fox, Fraser, Gond, Goykanadi, Grantha, Gujarati, Gunjala Gondi, Gupta, Gurmukhi, Halbi Lipi, Hanifi, Hanuno'o, Hočąk, Ibalnan, Incung, Inuktitut, Jaunsari Takri, Javanese, Kaithi, Kadamba, Kamarupi, Kannada, Kawi, Kharosthi, Khema, Khe Prih, Khmer, Khojki, Khudabadi, Kirat Rai, Kōchi, Komering, Kulitan, Kurukh Banna, Lampung, Lanna, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Lota Ende, Magar Akkha, Mahajani, Malayalam, Meitei (Modern), Manpuri (Old), Marchen, Meetei Yelhou Mayek, Meroïtic, Masarm Gondi, Modi, Mon, Mongolian Horizontal Square Script, Multani, Nandinagari, Newa, New Tai Lue, Ojibwe, Odia, Ogan, Pahawh Hmong, Pallava, Phags-pa, Purva Licchavi, Qiang / Rma, Ranjana, Rejang (Kaganga), Sasak, Savara, Satera Jontal, Shan, Sharda, Sheek Bakrii Saphaloo, Siddham, Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sukhothai, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagbanwa, Takri, Tamil, Tanchangya (Ka-Pat), Tani, Thaana, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tigalari, Tikamuli, Tocharian, Tolong Siki, Vatteluttu, Warang Citi

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 14.04.24

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